To begin with, I never said anything about deportations in the abstract – a limited number might be good, and everyone wants a secure border and nobody wants gang members all over the place – but specifically, the cruelty and inhumanity of the indiscriminate enforcement regime of terror. Come on – the very name Alligator Alcatraz advertises its harsh conditions in a very “branded”, Trumpian way.

If people come in illegally, they should be thrown out. Tough. They broke the law. Cry me a river.

Taking up space illegally should carry a death sentence? What should happen to people who retain classified documents after they’ve left office? Whether Donald Trump or John Bolton? And it ignores the logistical realities of a lot of neighborhoods. What is mass deportation going to accomplish that reform couldn’t?

I don’t think Trump has been any worse than any other. Most likely it just gets reported more by a media that is overwhelmingly leftwing. The media has lied so much, especially about Trump, over the past 15 years, that I can’t believe half the garbage they pump out anymore

This is literally an argument from ignorance. Who do you believe? Some podcaster or Alex Jones? Say what you will about the mainstream media ecosystem – left-wing, builds false consensus, etc etc – but there are three networks and two cable channels all following at least some form of ethics, who meticulously source their information to fend off lawsuits. Newspapers’ legal departments are as big as their circulation departments these days. The right has one cable channel in addition to a loose network of newspapers, radio stations, and social media influencers. And what have they gotten more wrong than with any other president, factually? I’ve seen people point to clearly labelled analysis or opinion columns as evidence of bias, which is media illiteracy at its finest. Not saying you are. As far as not going further than any other president – you wouldn’t say that if you lived here.

Re: immigration – one thing the American left/mainstream can’t understand is that there’s a difference between nationality and citizenship, that Giannis Antetokoumpo (sp?) can be Greek (first name) but not a Greek (last name). As much as the patriotic West African-French cohort in France likes to claim that they’re authentically French, they’ll never really be Frenchmen. Compare this to America, which isn’t based on any particular nationality and where if you buy in, you’re as good as one of us. That’s the way it was all through the 18th and 19th centuries; you see it articulated as “America is founded on an idea”. To the extent that mass migrants in Europe are layabout benefits-leeches, that’s just not the case in America. They’re not societally barred from nationhood; immigrants come in, legally or illegally, and go about making their lives and communities better. I’ve said it here before but my neighborhood is about 50% Honduran and Salvadorian immigrants and they’re generally better people than native-born Americans – including their native-born children – because they don’t have a lazy, entitled, me-me-me, gimme-more-stuff, can’t-do attitude and weren’t brought up with rubbish American popular culture. Kick out the blacks instead. (Kidding.)

But similarly, a lot of people think of America as a nation-state. We’re not. We’re more of a multi-ethnic empire.

As for technological progress, I’m not the right person to ask: I think life was best when we were sitting under trees, eating apples and watching sheep. But my long-standing meaning of life is “live well, then die,” and my ideal society maximizes happiness and a level of material comfort conducive to happiness or maximum material comfort combined with good education, guaranteeing as many liberties as is wise and feasible.

Anyway just a few thoughts. I said it above in a post that was deleted for not being up to my usual lofty standards but it’s good to see you back. You’re one of very few people I missed from Facebook.